This invention relates to drapery hardware and more particularly to drapery or curtain rod bracket supports and a drapery or curtain rod associated therewith.
Conventional drapery hardware includes a pair of brackets which are attached to a window molding or frame by means of nails or screws and a rod suspended from the pair of brackets.
Attaching such brackets can be difficult. Consequently, the results may be very unsatisfactory, particularly when the operation is attempted by the non-mechanically inclined segment of the general public. Often the wood molding splits as the bracket nails or screws are driven into the molding. The bracket may easily be mounted crookedly or at an angle; thus the rod will be difficult if not impossible to mount on the skewed brackets. When it is desired to change the hardware, the chances of splitting the wood molding become quite high. Often, the same holes in the wood molding must be used for the new hardware, leaving the new brackets insecurely fastened to the molding. If the decision is made to remove the drapes or curtains and not to replace them with new ones, then the unsightly brackets and rod or at least the brackets must be left in place. Or, the brackets could be removed, thus leaving equally unsightly holes where the screws or nails for the brackets had been.
The prior art includes several attempts to overcome these problems. A sampling of that art is disclosed in the following five prior U.S. Patents. The use of a pair of pocket shaped brackets with a curtain rod having mating fittings snap-locked into the pocket shaped brackets is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,564,747 issued to E. J. Barrett. However, these brackets are permanently mounted so as to be plainly visible when curtains are not hung from the rod. Bracket structure associated with the upper corners of window moldings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No's. 1,438,490 to C. P. Henry et al; 2,341,039 to G. W. Hartman; and 2,770,437 to E. F. Pasch. In each case, the brackets mounting the curtain rods are plainly visible on the face of the window molding.
A related attempt to overcome the problem of attaching unsightly curtain rod brackets to window moldings is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,045 issued to R. J. Cegielski, Jr. wherein a pair of elongate vertical rails are attached to the wall along the vertical sides of the window molding. The rails are slotted to receive matable curtain rod brackets at selected positions along the rails. Unfortunately, the unsightly brackets are only replaced by equally unsightly rails.
What the prior art above discussed fails to disclose is a curtain rod and bracket structure wherein pockets for mounting the rod are completely hidden from view, whether in use or not, behind the upper opposed corners of conventional window molding surrounding a window.